Phantom King
by Dr. All Rounds
Summary: After finding out his mother's dark secret that could kill her, Gumball does the one thing that could save her. He joined a mercenary group called Phantom, but he still has a family to think about. And he will do anything to protect his family and friends. Semi-dark, smart, strong Gumball.
1. Because I love you

It was a silent night in the neighborhood of Sleyville with a few cars on the road as most of the residents of Sleyville were asleep. A man dressed in all black with gloves and a face mask, carried a rolled up rug, near the road on the desert. Finding a good place, he placed the rug on the ground and unravelled it to reveal a dead local teacher laying on the rug.

Moving her from the rug, he rolled it up and carried it back to his semi-truck and walked back to the victim, took out a black 9mm pistol with a custom 30 bullet rifle magazine, switched the safety off and cocked back the slider, then shot the victim on the head and chest, and stomach.

Switching the safety on, he placed it on his jacket before he walked to his truck and grabbed a gallon of gasoline and went back to the victim and poured half of it at her. He then placed the container on the ground, he pulled out a match box, lit up a stick and threw it at her, causing her to catch fire.

The man didn't even watch her burn, he grabbed the gasoline container and went to his truck and drove further into the desert. Feeling like he went far enough, he stopped and got out of the truck, taking out the gasoline and rug with him. After placing the rug on the rocky surface, he poured the rest of the gasoline on it and lit it on fire.

Going back to his truck, he drove far from the scene. Stopping somewhere far, he turned off the engine, before he was consumed by a bright light, as the light died down, he was gone.

* * *

**Outside the Watterson household**

* * *

A bright light flashed above the sidewalk, and when the light disappeared, the man was floating above the side walk. With a toothy grin, he floated to Gumball's window and fazed into the room and floated to his bed. Pulling out the pistol, and bag of powder, some money and jewelry.

He then took Gumball's hand and placed the pistol on it and forced his hand closed to make it seem like he held it. He then placed it in his backpack and did the same thing with the money, jewelry, and bag, but before he placed it on Gumball's backpack, he opened the bag and stuck his thumb in it and took out a dab of powder and brought it to Gumball's nose. As Gumball breathed in, he also sniffed the powder, causing his nose to ich. Trying to get rid of the ich he scratched his nose and sniffed a bit more until it got too irritated.

"A... a... achoo." he sneezed. He jolted up, as the man disappeared. Gumball noticed his nose was burning badly. "What the fuck?" Gumball yelled in pain causing Darwin to wake up.

Darwin raised up from his tank and rubbed his eyes to only see Gumball rubbing his nose. "Uh... Gumball, what's wrong?" he asked, curious about the reason he was woken up.

Gumball noticed his brother staring at him. "I don't know, but my nose feels like it's on fire." Gumball said as he dug in his nose to find or ease the pain.

Darwin placed a hand on his chin as he thought of something. "Maybe I splashed some of my salt water on you when I was sleeping. I'm sorry dude." Darwin suggested as he scratch the back of his head. Gumball thought over the possibilities. Knowing there's nothing good with blaming his brother, he just shrugged it off.

"You might be right, but don't sweat it man. I'm sure I can ignore it, but we have school tomorrow and we don't want to be late again. I swear Mis Simian is out for our throats." Gumball said, then laid back down and tried to get some shut eye. For some reason, Mis Simian had been following their mother, but now, she was taking a liking to getting on their nerves.

"It's surprising she still wants to fail you, even though we are in highschool and she's still teaching the 7th grade." Darwin commented. They were currently in freshman year in high school.

"It's actually not that surprising. I told you man, 'that woman got issues!'." Gumball mimicked one of those stereotypical 1980s black women series.

Darwin chuckled a little. "You're right. Night man."

"Night bud."

The man waited until he was sure they were asleep, then he reappeared and placed the bag of powder in his backpack, then zipped it. "Two birds with one stone. As much as I want you to share the same fate as that seal, I believe jail will give you a better lesson then death. That will teach you what happens when you mess with me, cat boy." the man said as he left the room and flew around the streets before disappearing in a ball of light.

* * *

**The next day**

* * *

*BEEP, BEEP,BEEP.* The Alarm clock blared in Gumball's ears as he slept awaking him, he tried to ignore it. *BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!* the alarm got louder *BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!* the alarm didn't sound like it was even close to stopping. *BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" It kept on beeping until Gumball couldn't take it any more, he got up out of his bed and hit the snooze button.

He's eyes were blood shot and he felt more tired then he usually is when he woke up, he set up and let out a yawn before his brother, Darwin woke up.

"Morning Gumball." He said in his normal peppy attitude.

"Mornin..." Gumball said in a way that was not understandable. He then stood up and walked out of the room and down the hallway to the bathroom. Twisting the knob, the door didn't open and a nice tune was being hummed by...

Gumball banged on the door. "Lexy, you have been taking a shower for 30 minutes, you're going to finish the hot water!" Gumball yelled as he continued banging on the door. That was their arrangement, the girls would wake up 30 minutes before the boys.

"Come on you know that's not true. Just give me a few more minutes." she said as she continued to wash.

"Hey Lexy, I'm not playing around, don't finish the hot water!" Gumball yelled as he continued to bang on the door. Darwin was stunned at his brother's new behaviour. When he saw his eyes, Darwin remembered last night and figured that he didn't get enough sleep.

"Gumball, are you okay?" asked Darwin, concerned about his brother's health and behavior.

"Why does that matter?! Whatever! I'll just shower at school!" Gumball said with annoyance in his tone, then walked back to his room and got changed to his school uniform, leaving Darwin confused and worried. Gumball has gotten angry before, even for stupid things, but this was beyond stupid.

Gumball then walked out of the room and went downstairs to be greeted by his mother. "Morning boys." Nicole greeted.

"Morning (Mrs.) mom." Darwin greeted happily, while Gumball's greeting was bitter.

"Sorry Mrs. mom, I accidentally splashed him with my tank water last night, I think he didn't have much sleep after that." Darwin apologized for Gumball.

Looking straight into his eyes, she saw how bloodshot they were. "Yeah, he looks more tired than I am. Here, have this, you need it more than me." Nicole gave him her glass of coffee. She was glad he was opening up, but this rude attitude was going to annoy her. Normally, he would ignore everyone until he needed something, or someone asked him a question, and even that, he'd give a short answer if he didn't care about answering, if he didn't want to answer, he didn't.

Still a little tired, he took the glass and quickly took a sip, causing him to swallow it and coughed as it burnt his tongue, then placed the mug on the table. "Aahhh, ma tongue." Gumball said with his tongue out as he fans it.

Amused by his reaction, Richard, Darwin and Nicole started to giggle. "What's so funny? I'm here burning myself and you're just laughing at me!" Gumball scorned angerly.

Slowly stopping her giggles. "Come on Gumball, you're a 14 year old boy, you should start taking responsibility. Now, since you are already down here, you should have something to eat. Maybe you'll feel better over time." Nicole announced.

"Whatever!" Gumball said angerly, not pleased with how he was treated, as he and Darwin walked into the kitchen. Darwin grabbed the Daisy flakes as Gumball fished out the milk. They grabbed bowls and went to the dining table and took turns pouring the milk and flakes.

It was then that Lexy and Anais went downstairs and greeted every one. "Morning." they said in unison. The others had already started eating.

"Morning." the rest of the family said also in unison, but Gumball's was angry and more dragged out. The girls raised an eyebrow as they knew Gumball was only rude if you scratched him the wrong way and they don't remember doing anything wrong recently, except for the shower, but he doesn't care about taking a shower in the morning since he can just take one in school or after school.

"Woke up at the wrong side of the bed?" Lexy asked with sarcasm.

Not taking that lightly, Gumball was about to speak, but was cut off before he could start, the person that cut him off was Nicole. "Didn't have enough sleep." Nicole said, shutting up Gumball as he returned to his breakfast.

Looking at him they saw his bloodshot eyes. "You aren't kidding, did he even sleep at all? What were you doing all night?" asked Anais as she and Lexy went to the kitchen for their bowls.

Again before Gumball could fire back, Darwin stepped in. "I accidentally splashed my water on his face." Darwin announced.

"Ohhh, we know how that feels." Anais said as they came back to the dining room. They set down, and took the milk and cereal and took turns pouring it in their bowls. How do they know? you asked. Well let's just say a failed prank, that also backfired. As they ate, an awkward silence was in the air. They were something that needed to be cleared out and said, for closure, just to lift the atmosphere,... but nothing was said, making the seconds feel like hours.

Knowing he was the cause of the tense atmosphere, he placed his spoon on the table, he lifted his bowl to his head, placed his lips on the edge of it, and tilted the bowl towards himself, resulting in him drinking the cereal.

Nobody stopped him because they knew why he was doing it, and the only other person who could break the tension, doesn't... want to. No! That was a wrong way to put it. The proper way is to say they have a decision to make about their feelings, and they have made a decision, but they know that their feelings won't seat well with their family, so they were waiting until their feelings would change,... or at least soften.

After finishing his drinking, Gumball stood up. "I'm walking to school." said Gumball, then walked out of the dining room and into the kitchen and washed his bowl and spoon. After washing them, he went upstairs. As he was marching upstairs, he noticed that he wasn't that tired anymore. He figured that his mother was right.

Getting into his room, he went to his bed, picking up his bag, he swung it around his back. He then grabbed his earphones and plugged them into his phone and placed the phone in his pocket, he then placed the earbuds on his ears and pressed play on the earphones control panel. The first song to play was Mockingbird by Eminem.

He then pressed play and held it until he heard the song being paused and a *too-too* giving him the okay to say something then he let go of the play button. "Shuffle songs." he said. *tee-tee* "Sure." the system assistant said back to him before resuming the song.

Gumball walked out of the room and went down the stairs, he thought of how sad the song was, but it was okay for how the mood was in the dining room, and also the song ends at a comedic note. As he passed the sitting room, he waved to the rest of his family except for Nicole, who was also leaving for work. The other family members were watching some early morning toons, to Darwin's dismay, it was 'My Little Pony.', and next was 'My Little Pet Shop.'. Gumball chuckled at his luck, it almost made Gumball invite him to go together, but the cat wanted his space.

Gumball walked out of the house with Nicole not far behind. As he went down the stairs, he felt something on his shoulder. Looking down at his shoulder, he saw a hand with dark pink nail polish. He pressed pause and took out an earbud as he turned his head and looked behind, to see his mother.

"Do you want me to drive you to school?" Nicole asked with worry clear in her voice. She wanted to tell him something, but she wasn't sure how to bring it to him.

"I said I'm walking to school." Gumball said with a neutral tone. What was this? As he remembers correctly, everyone, except for Darwin and a new girl, Carrie Krueger, betrayed him, so why would he seat alone with the betrayer.

Gumball proceeded to head down the porch stairs, but Nicole called out. "But it's a long walk to your school, you should at least ride your bike." Nicole suggested. Gumball currently owned a gray BMX.

"Tubeless." Gumball continued walking and was about to place the earbud in his ear when Nicole called out again. He had so many punchers that he couldn't patch up the front tube any more, and Nicole didn't have money to waste on a tube, but payday was coming up.

"Gumball, wait. Can I give you a ride? We need to talk." Nicole commended as she was filling with anger as she couldn't take his behavior any longer.

Gumball turned around as he was already down the stairs. "Can't we just talk right now, right here?" he asked as he really didn't want to get in a small space with his mother.

As her anger rose, Nicole did some breathing exercises to calm herself down. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she spoke up. "Okay, let's talk." she paused as she thought her words over. "I was thinking we should move to Elmore. The school there has a great program for smart children like Anais and Lexy. I could open a small restaurant there and you could go to the high school there, I heard that there are some pretty girls there, and I'm sure you can find a girl to get over your ex girlfriend. Everyone has already agreed that it would be a great change for us, but then you'll be leaving all your friends behind. So the last vote is yours, if you don't want us to move, we won't." Nicole explained.

To tell the truth, Gumball didn't have any friends in town other then Darwin, the others are just chatting buddies, so Gumball didn't have a problem moving there, not to mention Carrie stays there, but he did have a problem with his mother covering the real reason they are moving there; the school program, not his relationship status, just the program for her pretty little smart girls. That realization made his mood sour even more.

He also figured that Nicole has gotten in good terms with her parents, since they knew she was born and raised there, and moved away for an unknown reason. But when they ask her why, she just answered with a "You know, sometimes parents and children don't always see eye to eye." and just leaves it there.

Gumball just plugged his ear with the earbud and started walking away. "Whatever helps you sleep at night." he said then grabbed the control panel and pressed play. He knew that his mother has been working from the morning until really early in the morning, the next day, just to pay for all that he has broken, thanks to his antiques, but she's recently been able to cope with the debts.

* * *

**The high school **

**Over Half a****n**** hour later**

* * *

Over half an hour later, Gumball reached the school, and went inside, then he met with the worst thing to be installed in a school, the metal detector. Gumball understood its cause, it was there to keep them safe from gun wielding geeks that came for revenge on the jocks, but it did make them feel like they signed up for jail instead of school. It was not so scary to be a jock in the eighty's and maybe ninety's, you used to get all the popular girls, got what you want from the nerds, and also you have the power to bully those nerds, but now, at the end of the day you get shot.

Something Gumball would think why most jocks don't get that nerds play V.R games, where they literally have to aim their V.R guns. And if it's not the guns that scare you, which is impossible, then they are good at hacking, so if you don't get into the team thanks to a comment on social media that you don't remember posting, just remember the nerds you bullied.

Gumball removed his earphones and phone, and placed it on the bucket on the side. He also took off his belt and placed it in the same bucket. He didn't even know why he wore it any more. Oh right, it's part of the school uniform, and if he didn't wear it, he'll have 4 hours detention.

He then walked through the metal detector, only to have it beeping. As it was expected, nobody was alarmed since most school bags keep their shape thanks to a metal reinforcement that is covered by rubber or hard plastic that is outlining the bag. But newer bags will only have the hard plastic tube.

Gumball stepped back and took off the bag and placed it on the bucket. He then walked through the metal detector and there was no sound. He then walked to the pick up station, as the students called it, and grabbed his phone, earphones, and placed them into his pocket and took his belt and wore it as the guard looked in his stuff as a routine check.

Privacy, something they don't have any more, but at least the security guard agreed on a non-disclosure agreement with the students, maybe because he didn't feel right about exposing a kid's porn collection, especially for the new kids, who don't know better than to think you could just hide it in a secret compartment in the bag.

The security guard opened his bag and he was able to see everything since Gumball had one book for homework. His eyes widened as he saw the customized weapon, drugs and jewelry. He closed the bag and looked at Gumball.

"Kid, let's go to the principal's office." the guard said. Since there were always two guards in the front door, he could go with Gumball without any problems. Feeling like it's nothing major, Gumball followed the guard to his principal's office. There were eyes on him, but since it was so early, there weren't many people in the school. Arriving at the principal's office, Gumball went ahead and took a seat. The guard went to the principal and whispered something, causing the principal's eyes to widen. The guard opened the bag and showed it to the principal. The principal took a big breath.

He had done this a few times and he has seen it is important to stay calm and concentrate on the accused, as some of them are willing to kill anyone for their ambitions.

He then opened his drawer and took out latex gloves and wore them. "Mr Watterson, do you know why you are here?" the principal asked in a calm, serious voice. The principal was a brown bear.

That's when it dawned on him, this wasn't something small, because on matter how bad this school was, the principal was always unnervingly happy, even more then Darwin, which was really creepy. Gumball shot up a little. "No, principal Swahr." Gumball declared.

He reached into his bag. "So these aren't yours." Mr Swahr said as he took out the drugs and then the gun, making Gumball's face pale as he was almost sure that he was being framed, he was mostly worried that there was a loaded gun in his bag, IT COULD HAVE SHOT HIM AT ANY TIME.

"It could have shot me." Gumball said under his breath.

"What?" Mr Swahr said as he didn't catch what Gumball said.

He came into reality. "Wait, those aren't mine, someone must have put them there to frame me or something!" Gumball insisted. Even if it was his, then why would he put incriminating evidence into his own bag, when he knows that his bag will be checked like every one, every day.

"If so, then I bet you don't mind if we call the police to take fingerprints from these items to clear your name." asked the principal.

"I rather prefer to be dropped at the police station, then being arrested here at school and create a scandal." said Gumball. They all know that he will be arrested here, the tests are going to be done in their labs, and if he's innocent, he will be released, but since being arrested here would create bad publicity for the school and Gumball, the backlash will be severe on both parties involved.

Last time something like this happened to a school, the school was also fined thousands of dollars for not handling the matter more delicately, and was soon shut down thanks to the Press and parents who didn't want their children displayed on social media like beef and sausage in a BBQ.

Not wanting another deja vu, the principal agreed with Gumball. "Okay, then you well go with Jeff, and I will transport the evidence." Mr Swahr said as he placed the evidence back in the bag. He then stood up from his seat followed by Gumball.

"Don't worry kid, we know they're not yours, because you might, okay you are crazy but you are not dumb. And even if they are yours, you would have chosen a better place to hide them, or you would have just left them home, so don't worry." Jeff the guard said. Gumball didn't comment on it, and just stood and took out his earphones and placed both earbuds in his ear, then he unlocked his phone and went into the music app, and played 'Framed by Eminem.' and got out of the music app and into 'Angry Birds.' and started playing as he knew that this was going to be a long process.

"Just please tell my mom to not come to the police station." Gumball said, hoping he's not too loud or too low because of the earphones.

**(Okay I know that Recovery was released 2016-17 and Gumball is 14 which means it's 2013 in the story, well the thing is that anything that exists in our world, even if it's something came out right now, I'll put it in the storyline, without skipping years.)**

The guard got close to the principal. "I think the kid is going back to his shell, I think you should contact the psyche hospital before he hurts himself." Jeff suggested as they knew his condition.

"Yeah, I think you are right, I'll contact them on my way to the police station. I also think I should inform his mother. Yeah, it'll be best if she hears from us then the police." Mr Swahr said before grabbing the bag and the started to walk out of the office after tapping Gumball's back to get going. Gumball has been here long enough that he knows the school map out, and getting to the parking lot isn't difficult.

2 years ago Gumball's plan was in action, when something went wrong and someone ended up dead. An investigation took place and almost every one accused him of cold blooded murderer except for Darwin and a visiting girl Carrie Krueger, but it was found that it was manslaughter.

Through the whole investigation, which surprisingly took 2 months, and in that time Gumball spent in jail, lost the trust of most of his family and friends, and even lost those friends, he even lost his girlfriend. After it was declared that it was manslaughter, the charges were lowered to 2 years, but Gumball had already been transferred into a mental hospital for a addiction he had, that was caused by PTSD. He also ended up spending he remaining jail time in the mental hospital.

And for some reason, the mother of the deceased child thought it was a good idea to have him and her second daughter meet up for a play date, which did turn out to be a good thing as the first daughter was Kidnapped, abused, forced to take drugs, and raped. So she came back as a zombie of herself, a shell that made them all suffer and what he did was show her mercy, even if it was a mistake, since nothing could help her with her mental illness, not to mention she had to battle H.I.V. It would have been a losing battle with one of them, if not both. The sister forgave Gumball since her older sister was suffering, but she did want to know more about her.

But the second sister wasn't attached to her older sister, because the first sister disappeared before she was born, kind of like Lexy, and that's how Lexy knows her. They were both survivors with many others, but they were close to each other, to the point that they were sisters in soul. That was until their captors decided to play with some of the girls.

As a free cat, Gumball just became quiet, the family figured that Gumball was angry at them. They also didn't know about his addiction, only about the PTSD, which was why they let him have some space, hoping he would recover.

They say being a rapist is one of the worst things to be in jail for, well it is true as the captors where found and arrested, they were sentenced for life in prison. Where they were beaten and raped by the other inmates, with the guards not giving a care in the world, for almost a year, when the captors were found to be been tortured by thousand cuts, then had their manhood detached from their place and stuck in their mouths.

Gumball played the song because of its dark lyrics, but what he really liked about it was the chorus.

**But hey man, I was framed (framed) **

**I know how it looks like officer, please just give me one minute, I think I can ex-plain (plain) **

**I murder nobody, I know these words are so nutty, but I'm just here to enter-tain (tain) **

**"How come you shirt is so bloody?!" **

**There's a missing person, so what, he's got nothing to do with me (me) **

**I'm almost certain I was framed (framed)**

As Gumball got into Jeff's car, he hoped his shirt wasn't bloody, I mean his prints weren't on the objects of crime. Looking out the window, Gumball could see Mr Swahr placing his bag in the trunk. Gumball let out a sigh. They say that they believe him, but they are separating him and the evidence, where's the trust in that. He just went back to his game.

Jeff got inside the car and started the engine, placing it in reverse, he reversed out of his parking spot, and he pressed a remote that opened the gate, he drove out of the yard, with the principal not far behind. Looking at the rear view mirror, he adjusted it to look at Gumball, he was immediately impressed by how calm the cat boy was.

While Gumball only played this game because his worries and stress was getting out of control and the game gets his mind off of the stuff happening, and his only worries on the moment is how badly can he destroy his high score.

* * *

**With Mr Swahr**

* * *

The principal had his phone linked to his car, via Bluetooth. "Search and call Dane psyche hospital." he said, his phone took awhile as it first searched for the number, then called it. It rung two times before it was picked up.

"Dane psyche hospital, Sleyville office, how can I help you?" asked the lady on the other side.

"Yes, umm. I'm calling about a previous patient, Mr Gumball Watterson." said Mr Swahr.

The lady hummed as it was clear from sound alone that she was looking over some forms. "Are you a registered guardian or parent? If not, then we can not share information." the lady said.

"No, I'm not looking for information. I'm Mr Swahr, his principal. I wanted to tell you that Gumball is at risk of a relapse. Illegal substances were found in his school bag, he claims that he doesn't own them nor know how they got in the bag. I know how the justice system is like, so I was worried about his safety." Mr Swahr explained.

"Okay, thanks for the information Mr Swahr. We will sand a doctor to monitor him." the lady from the other side said.

"Thanks, good day."

"Good day to you too." the lady said before hanging up. The principal knew the worst was to come as he had to inform Nicole about the gun and drugs, then Gumball's wish for her not to come.

* * *

**Time skip **

**The police station**

* * *

The trio arrived at the police station and got out of their cars and went into the building. Inside, they went straight to the report table. "Mr Swahr, what can I do for you?" a police officer that recognizes the principal.

The principal opened the bag and showed it to the officer. The officer looked inside the bag for a couple moments, then looked at Gumball. For him, this was the first time in his years, has the suspect came to the police station. "Well this is a first." the officer said.

"Well, the kid wanted everything to be processed as quietly as possible. He didn't want to start an unnecessary scandal." Jeff said to the officer.

"Okay, kid, come with me. We need to get your blood for the drug test, and I believe we still have your fingerprints from last time." the officer said then grabbed and zipped Gumball's bag and then they went to the back for the blood tests. Gumball, though was a little interested to know why everyone had the need to call him kid.

* * *

**Time skip**

* * *

After taking his blood, Gumball was then locked inside a holding cell as they process the blood for drugs and for fingerprints on the gun. He just set and tried to think about TV shows he liked. It was calming, as he tried to not think about his future at the moment. His destiny was already set for him and it wasn't a ideal destiny for many, but he was trying his best to deal with it.

The calm atmosphere was broken when the door to the holding cell room was open and stepped in Nicole, the doctor from the brain hospital, the mother who lost her daughter, and an officer. Nicole, seeing her son in this cage, she wanted to rip off the cell door and hug her son in a warm embrace, and tell him that everything will be fine. But she stopped herself, knowing that he didn't want her to come, and he might push her away and that would weaken the already weak bond. And also if this hasn't been enough to put him in a relapse, then the memories of her abandoning him when he needed her the most he had ever needed her would.

Jerking up, Gumball clenched his heart. "Mom, Ms Livi, what are you two doing here? Don't you have jobs? Ms Jane is the only one who came here to do her job." Gumball said. He had a suspicion that the hospital would be contacted about the information, but he didn't know why the others were there.

"Come on, Gumball, I told you, you can call me mommy Kai." Kai said. Kai Livi was a cheetah, she had her hair in a braided pony tail, with yellow eyes, and was wearing a black t-shirt, with a brown coat over it, black high waisted pencil skirt, and light brown boots. The officer went to open the cell door.

Gumball, Kai, and her daughter, had gotten very close over the year, and to Gumball, she had felt like a fun second mom, and she also saw Gumball as a son she never had. But the two mothers were not close, other than a few conversations, they were strangers.

"And I told you, I'd never call you such a kinky word." Gumball said dumbfounded.

Nicole immediately frowned at the word he just said. "Young man, where did you learn that word?!" she glared at him like he was her prey and she was ready to pounce. Ms Jane placed a hand on Nicole to stop her. Nicole had light blue hair in a ponytail, sunset orange eyes, wearing a skin tight short sleeve silver shirt, that was enhancing her double D-cups breast, she also had gray mini skirt, leaving her gorgeous legs out for the world to see.

"Ma'am, calm down, you're scaring him." Ms Jane said, hoping to calm down the atmosphere for her patient, but she was too late.

At the reaction of his mother, Gumball jerked up as he yelped, knowing there's no way to run. "I... ummm... school,... English and Life Orientation classes." Gumball said, knowing which word she meant. He closed his eyes, getting ready to have one of her famous spankings.

Seeing the state of her son, Nicole was filled with sadness, worry and fear at herself of how her children see her as a beast. Kai was disappointed at how Nicole parents her children.

"Come on, Nicole, let the child go. And let's have a little talk for awhile." Kai said then left the room, followed by Nicole. Ms Jane normally would have intervened more when Nicole lost it but Child Service was investigating if Nicole is a fit enough parent for her children (they had given up on Richard, even before the investigation started), and even though she wasn't all about splitting families, Ms Jane was tasked with gathering information.

"Hey Gumball, how are you doing?" Ms Jane asked. Alice Jane is a cow, she had small horns, purple hair that had some black strands that was let down to reach her butt, with some strands went down her face to make a fringe that hid her forehead, and some of her hair went in front of her shoulders, around her J-cup breasts and down to the top of her thighs, her ears were purple with black spots, and her tail was purple with the tip black, her eyes were also purple. And not to mention she had a thick hourglass figure.

She was wearing a white and black cow print thigh long dress, white lab coat over it, mid-thigh long white stockings with black bands, and black pumps. She was also carrying a bag.

Gumball had opened his eyes when he heard his mother was leaving the room. "I'm still doing good Ms Jane. I took your advice about not thinking about it and distracting myself with something else, and it's working." Gumball said. Ms Jane took a black bracelet out of her bag and gave it to Gumball.

"Do you mind putting this thing on?" she asked. Of course Gumball knew what this thing was, well only what it did actually, it was one of the knowledge he collected from the hospital. It was a heart rate and blood pressure sensor.

Gumball took off his blazer and rolled up his shirt sleeve, and then took the band and slipped it on his arm and up his upper arm. Alice then hover a digital watch over the black band until she heard a *tee*. She then tapped a button on her watch. It then showed Gumball's vitals.

She looked at the reading. "Everything looks in top condition." she said.

* * *

**Meanwhile with Nicole and Kai**

* * *

The two walked until they were sure they couldn't be heard, stopping, Kai looked back at Nicole then she stopped. "Nicole, you should calm down a little. He's a teenager, he knows some stuff that he's too young to know, but it's not the end of the world. Child Service is investigating if you are a fit enough mother to raise your kids, if they take Gumball, Darwin, Lexy and Anais, I can adopt them, but it won't help if child service get a restraining order on you." Kai said.

"You're right, he's too young to know these things. And I got to keep a tighter leash on him." Nicole interjected.

"Nicole stop and think for once, this is not how you raise your chi-"

"Gumball is my son, I'm gonna raise him my way!" Nicole interrupted, as she didn't want to hear how she should raise her kids.

"No, I'm not trying to tell you how to raise your kids, but let's try and go back in time. I'm sure your parents kept a tight leash on you, and you were a good girl, but what happened when your parents were too far for them to hold that leash or when you finally broke free of that leash?" asked Kai. Nicole gave it a thought, lots of blurred memories came to her mind, she let out a gasp as she remembered whey her teenage years where blurry, alcohol and drugs.

"Let me guess, you drunk, smoked and did drugs until you dropped. In other words you were rebellious when they were not around. You were always filled with adrenaline every time you broke the rules. And now you're not close to your parents thanks to lack of communication." Kai said. Nicole just nodded her head as worrying thoughts went to her mind of what if he might turn into her one day and he couldn't fight the addictions she had to go through.

"So the only thing I'm doing is suggesting, yes suggesting that you should loosen your leash. Some parents, instead of stopping their children from drinking, they drink around the children and when the children are old enough to want to drink, then they encourage them to try it, so that when they are not around they know their children will not drink until they drop, since the kids know that they can drink any day, and most of them even become occasional drinkers, because there's no feeling of rebellion, or adrenaline, but it's an automatic no to drugs and smoking. They swear around their kids. They have uncomfortable, uncensored discussions. Doing those things may seem crazy, but it really gives the child the feeling that they can talk about anything without a cringy moment and gives them a freedom of speech. You'll be a friend, not a dictator to them. I'm not saying it works on every child, but every one I know who tried this were not disappointed and I also wasn't. And I'm not telling you to try it, but you should consider loosening the leashes on your kids, otherwise only two things will result for always tightening it, the leash will break, or the leash will strangle them, they both have one outcome, you'll lose them." explained Kai.

It took a while for Nicole to digest the information. She hasn't heard of such a parenting strategy, it was like being a bad parent. Maybe this is why they like Richard more, because he's like a cool friend, other than a dictator like herself. It wasn't a secret, no matter how they hid it, it was clear that they liked Richard better.

"Does it really work?" Nicole asked after a long pause.

"Yeah, I mean, my daughter told me she likes girls more than boys when she was 8. Was I proud? No, and I hoped it was a passing phase, but when she was 13, she told me she had her first time with her second girlfriend. Again, wasn't proud, but I was glad she didn't hide it and go behind my back." Kai explained her experience with her daughter.

"Okay, I'll try it, but what do you do when they cause trouble?" she asked.

"There's only one thing you can do, punish them after a long lecture. Now I think we should get back before your son charms and lock lips with the nurse." Kai said then they walked back to the cell room.

"I'm really worried about any one who's gonna be his girlfriend. He's just a natural charmer. Luckily for Jade, he wasn't a cheater when they dated, but now she dumped him and who knows how he has developed." Nicole thought out loud as worry about her baby boy was overwhelming at this point.

"Yeah." was the only thing that came out of Kai's mouth as she couldn't think of anything to add.

* * *

**Time skip**

* * *

Nicole, Kai, Alice and two detectives, Jack and David, were looking at Gumball through a two way mirror. Alice looked at her watch to see how he was reacting to being in a similar environment that got him sent to prison. She saw that his blood pressure had slightly rose and his heart rate slightly dropped, meaning he was either a little nervous, stressed or hungry, but the readings were not red flagging or close to it, so she didn't have to intervene.

Jack had a glass of milk on his hand and a file on the other. "Remember to choose your words carefully, this kid is recovering from post trauma stress disorder, so you have to keep him as calm as possible." David said to his partner.

The detective made an odd expression before Jack said. "Got it." and went into the room. They all watched as Gumball perked up at the officer's entrance. Alice checked the watch again to see that his heart rate dropped and blood pressure rose again, but it was totally normal in that situation, and they were still not even near red flagging.

Jack gave placed the mug on the table. Gumball looked at it funny as he didn't know why he was brought milk when he didn't even ask for anything to drink. "Hi, I'm detective Jack Sutton. I-"

"Good cop or bad cop?" asked Gumball as he interrupted the detective.

"Good cop, I guess, but here some milk, kid, this should clean the rest of the cocaine from your system." Jack was heard from the speaker, speaking. Still looking at his condition, Alice saw that his heart rate and blood pressure was getting worse.

"But those aren't mine! I'd never-"

"I believe you kid, but the evidence is stacked against you, even though the cocaine in your system is way too small to say that you didn't take it, your fingerprints are all over the bag." Jack interrupted him by raising his hand. Gumball's condition was getting worse.

"And, we found jewelry in your bag, that also had your prints on them, which matched a perfect description of jewelry that was stolen on 8 PM last night from only ten blocks away from your home." Gumball felt hungry as it showed Alice that he was getting worse than before.

"And your fingerprints were also found on the pistol in your bag. And the gun's rifling marks match the rifling marks found on bullets that shot a person dead." after hearing that, Gumball felt like he hadn't eaten in weeks as thoughts went through his mind on how they've really got him now, and he was going to rot in jail for all of these things that were just listed. From Alice, the watch told her that his heart rate was too low and his blood pressure was way too high.

She needed to act fast, so she grabbed the door knob. "Wait, you're not allowed in there." David said, but it was too late as Alice went in the interrogation room. She quickly went to Gumball and stood behind him. She then began to massage Gumball's head and ears causing him to calm down. It wasn't long before he started purring.

"I know your job is to investigate a crime, but this is my patient, I can't fail him." Alice explained. The detectives let her do what she came here to do.

And when she was finished, Gumball just rested head on her big milk jugs, burying his head into her huge chest, before drinking the milk in the mug. That made the two mothers watch in discomfort. Gumball thought about a line before the second chorus of Framed by Eminem.

**I'm wanted for questioning! **

**Them son of a bitch, he's trying to pin this on me **

"Okay kid, tell us what you did last night around eight." Jack said, David had already left the room. And for Gumball, that's when it all flooded in, his evidence to prove his innocence.

"Oh right my phone, I've always got my G.P.S. on, and I was chatting with a good friend almost all night, at another friend's house." Gumball explained. He didn't have to give them his phone because they had already took it so they could track his movements. While David went to check on the phone. For Nicole this was new news. The only thing she knew was that Gumball went to sleep early and nobody bothered him.

"As my colleagues verify what you are saying. I must ask, do you have enemies, or have you had a fight with someone recently?" asked Jack.

"Well last week I got into a fight with Earl Krueger, my friend's uncle, for personal reasons." Gumball said. Jack was about to ask Gumball to reveal his personal reasons, but...

David came back and pressed a button on a device next to the door. "His story checks out true, his phone has it's G.P.S. is always on, and he was texting Carrie Krueger from 7 PM to 10 PM and then played some games for more than half an hour while in a house about 3 hours away on foot." David said through the intercom.

"Okay, that doesn't explain how someone got your fingerprints and got you to take cocaine. The fastest way to get it in your system is through your nose, and that will give you a burning sensation, and the other way is through injection, but we can roll that out since no entry point was found." Jack said.

Feeling like a free man already, he was getting comfortable. "Well my little sister and brother both used my bag, and if they saw any illegal stuff, I'm sure my mom would make it impossible for me to seat right now or for the next month. And last night I did wake up with a burning nose, we thought my brother splashed water on me. I'm also a heavy sleeper when I'm very tired. The window was open, and the Krueger's are ghost, with ghost abilities. But if this is not enough proof, we can do a lie detector test, and you can check for gunpowder residue from my hands or clothes, I'm sure my mom doesn't care if you look at home for evidence, as long as nothing get messed up, of course." Gumball explained. At the last part he looked at the window behind the detective as he could feel he was looking at his mother somehow. Nicole slightly froze as Gumball was looking at her, and the look told her to let the big men do their job.

"Well your statement is enough, but it would be better if we investigated every angle, if you don't mind?" asked Jack.

"Of course, I'd like my name to be cleared as clean as possible." Gumball said thinking he'll be a free man and he'll get a day off from school.

"Clear as clean as possible. That doesn't make sense." Alice said, as she had been listening, and patting his head.

"Just roll with it."

* * *

**Time skip **

**A few hours later**

* * *

Gumball was riding shotgun with Nicole, and his clothes, blankets, sheets, etc was on the back seats. Gumball was listening to 'Selfie by The Chainsmokers' on his earphones as he regretted riding with her as the tension was higher then this morning. Gumball pressed play and held it. *Too-Too* "Call Kai Livi." Gumball said. *Tee-Tee* "Okay."

The phone rang for a few times before it got picked up. "Hi my little GummySauce." Kai greeted.

"What have I said about the name calling, please keep our relationship professional." Gumball said, causing Nicole to get curious and nosy, but she regretted she couldn't hear what Kai was saying.

"Okay, GummySauce, what's on your mind?" asked Kai.

Gumball sighed in frustration as he gave up on changing her mind, but he hoped it wouldn't bite him in the ass later. "I umm, i want to talk about the force." Gumball said in deflation. Nicole was clueless, what did he mean by 'the force'. Are they talking about Star Wars, whatever it was, Nicole wanted to be in the know.

"Wait, what do you mean about the f... oh, oh, right, right. Okay, is there something wrong? Are you getting cold feet or... " Kai said then trailed off, as she became serious, waiting for his answer.

"No, are you crazy? There's no way I'd give now, I just want to let you know that I want to receive full training because I can't stand how the house gets because of me and Lexy." Gumball said. Okay, the force, full time training, and Lexy. This doesn't make any sense, what does all of these things have in common.

"Okay, that's just makes things better. But are you going to keep this a secret from your parents or should one of us tell." Kai said.

"I'm gonna tell my mom, and she's gonna tell the rest of the family. Bye." Gumball said. Now they are talking about secrets! What is it?! She really wanted to know.

"Bye, sweetie pie." the call was ended, and the loud music continued.

Getting himself ready, Gumball paused the song. He knew that the was a lot to explain, well there wasn't a lot, but it was going to be difficult, especially now that she found out in a police situation that her son was some kind of night walker.

He took off his earphones. "Mom, there's something that I got to tell you, please don't kill us in this metal coffin." Gumball said.

Getting herself ready, Nicole drove slow. "You don't have to worry, honey, this is a safe place for you to say anything without any consequences." Nicole said.

"Oh... Kay. Well I should start by saying that I know about your debts with the Phantoms Organization." Gumball started.

Nicole's eyes widened. "What!"

"Yeah, and Kai is the agent who came to collect the rest of the debt from you, she was also the agent who took the job to torture and kill those bastards who Kidnapped Lexy. I know all of this because she told me. She also told me how I could save you, she said your debt will be fully paid with interest, if I join the Phantoms, and I did." Gumball explained. As he finished, Nicole was ready to hunt and kill someone.

"Are you insane? You'll be a killer, I can't let you do that!" Nicole would have said more, but she was cut off.

"And I can't let you be killed." Gumball fired back.

"Gumball, it was my mistake to hire them, I'm the one who didn't read the amount correctly, I can't let you fix my mistake for me!" Nicole yelled at Gumball in anger and frustration.

"You always fix my mistakes! You work morning to morning everyday because you're fixing my mistakes. Let's just think about how rich we would be if you worked even half the time, if I didn't cause trouble for you. And anyway I'm a murderer now, sure it was a mistake, but what good job can I get with a record like that? I just want you to rest and relax and follow your dreams, I want to fix your mistake, I don't want you to die. And you said it yourself, I should take responsibility, and now I am." Gumball explained.

As a rush of emotions went through her she burst out her seat and hugged Gumball, who thought he was going to die before he starts training. "Oh my son, I was right, you are a blessing, but I still don't want you to do it." Nicole said.

"Too late, mom. I've already sighed up." Gumball said as he oddly, for him, enjoyed the hug.

Some time later she started the car and they drove home. "Hey, Gumball, I heard you talking with Kai about being professional, what was that about?" Nicole asked, breaking the hug.

"Okay mom, please don't ease drop when I'm talking on the phone or in private, it's rude and I'd appreciate if you don't. But what I was talking about was that Kai has this thing of coming out with inappropriate nicknames." Gumball said, seeing nothing is going to bite him in the ass later.

"Oh." was the only thing she could master up.

* * *

**To be continued**

* * *

**So, how was it? **


	2. Why

**Hi may pips, I just wanted to tell you that forgot to tell you about my publishing plan, so if you didn't come from my other story, then you don't know that I am writing 4 stories so I do 2 per month just because last time I tried to juggle all four stories I burned out so badly that I chose to delete them. **

* * *

**In the Watterson household**

* * *

Being given the rest of the day off, Nicole was in her room, she shared with her husband, while said husband was downstairs watching TV, eating... well she didn't know what he was currently eating since it's 5 minutes when she left him eating nachos, and knowing him, he either has his 3rd or 4th refill, or he is eating something else, or in a extremely small chance of 0.025% he is not eating anything, but we all know how he is.

Back to Nicole, in her room she was looking at the pictures of her eldest child, she was looking at the picture where he had a passifier in his mouth as he was crawling on the floor of the seating room, and other pictures like that, but another that stood out was a picture of him with a dearly noticeable frown as his whole body was covered by a venom spiderman costume at his first trick or treating outing.

He had a frown on his face because his mother wanted to take a photo, which he agreed, but he soon found out that the photo she wanted was photosssssssssssssssssssss, and that frustrated him, not to mention he had a brilliant plan of how he was going to get the most candy in Elmore, and with every snep of the camera, seconds want by, seconds that turned to minutes, which was slowly breaking apart his plan. Of course that wasn't the first nor the last time his mother took his picture so many times that annoyed him, and when was a toddler, he would even cry, and weirdly enough that didn't stop her.

All of the camera fleshing eventually made Gumball hate having his pictures taken. And if you don't think it's possible, then only my mother used the camera as punishment while calling it 'Capturing the memories.' even though I was crying. HOW CAN SOMEONE TORTURE ANOTHER PERSON WITH A CAMERA? THAT SHIT SHOULD BE INPOSSIBLE. But I guess everything is possible with the right amount of sadism, not saying my mom's a sadist, but I was a crying baby and instead of comforting me, she continued taking pictures.

If you haven't guessed by now, I'u... have slight mom issues, but I still love her.

At the moment, Nicole was also experiencing mood swings. She was happy that, after all this time her son showed a responsible side, which was also fuelled with pride of her parenting efforts finally payed off and her son was living proof of that. But she was also feeling anger at her life decisions, she just had to hire professional killers to torture and kill the bustard who ripped their first born daughter away from them, which she, herself, wanted to do, but didn't want to be arrested. She also felt guilt, that thanks to her, her precious son was now on the road to becoming a professional killer himself just because she decided to hire them before carefully analyzing the amount of the request, and who knows, he might end up dead before they could meet again.

The prospect was quite impactful, especially now that she had to reveal everything to her family. She found that it was extremely stressful, and wasn't sure that she could be able to tell her children, she probably could handle Richard since he's somewhat informed about the situation, well only the part of her hiring the hitman, but not everything. Even though it'd be easier for her to reveal the truth about Gumball's disappearance to Richard, she hoped that he wouldn't be as heartbroken and angry as she thinks he could be.

After a rather long time adoring Gumball's photos, she was still adoring them as her mind was contemplating a plan of how she was going to break it to her children, but her train of thought was cut by the voices of said children calling out to their father.

* * *

**Downstairs**

* * *

The trio of kids opened the door and stepped into the house, then quickly rushed to the seating room, where they knew they would find their father. "Dad, is mom home?" asked Anais, not bothering to greet him. It was clear that they knew the answer to that thanks to her car on the driveway, so the real question was where was she.

"Yeah, she's up in her room, what do you want from her?" Richard asked, he too bothered not to greet as the entertainment produced by the television was just too enthralling for him to pay attention to other things. The kids knew that he was too sucked in by what was playing and wasn't fully, if not entirely paying attention to them.

But even with this knowledge about his dad, Darwin thought to tell their father as Anais was rushing up the stairs to tell their mother the information, so she could help them. "It's Gumball, he's-"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about Gumball, the whole thing was cleared with the police and he's not going back to jail." Richard said, interrupting Darwin before he could finish what he wanted to say. Richard just really wanted to be done with this conversation so that he could get back to his favorite pass time, and with each second he is concentrating on something else, is a second he misses out on something that could be extremely important.

"No, Mr dad, it's not that.-"

"Good. Now please fetch me a slice of pizza from the fridge." Richard interrupted again as the conversation they were currently having was cutting directly into the conversation Al and Sam were having, and he wanted the conversation between himself and Darwin to end, so he could concentrate more in the romantic interaction Al and Sam were having.

"Mr dad, he's in hospital!" Darwin yelled in frustration at his dad who had pure ignorance and disinterest of what he had to say. Most of the time, he could guess why Gumball gives his parents a cold shoulder, his mother is mostly working almost the hole day, so she doesn't spend enough time with them, or she's too tired, while Richard just flatly ignores them for something more interesting in the TV.

Darwin quickly regretted shouting the news about Gumball, because as soon as he finished the sentence, they all heard glass breaking upstairs, from the room Nicole was presumed to be in. Before they could react on the sound of breaking glass, Nicole's door was thrown open, and then the creature inside went out of the room and down the stairs so fast that all they see was a blar of blue, then it was mixed with a blar of pink as it picked up Anais. Reaching downstairs, it picked up Lexy, not caring to slow down, or not even being slowed down by the extra weight. The blar went passed Darwin, grabbing him and also mixing the green and orange into the blar. The mixture of colours burst out of the door and into the car, it then left Anais, Lexy and Darwin in the car as it went back into the house and came back with Richard, then it went into the driver's seat, and that's when it was revealed to be Nicole.

The kids and Richard were left disoriented and in the verge of throwing up as nothing they had ever rode gave them that much of motion sickness. They all tried their best to swallow down their food as they also tried to stop their heads from spinning, and the sound of the engine trying to start was like hell to them as a headache was slowly forming, and the time Nicole was trying to start the car, felt like it was going on for a long time and had no plan of stopping, but that was cut by the sound of the engine humming.

Nicole then looked back to see if the passengers had their seatbelts on. Seeing that they didn't have them on, Nicole reached over to the back and put on the seatbelts for them, including Richard. To the ones with headaches, the simple click of the seatbelt locking system was overbearing. Seeing that her children, and husband, were safely secured, she placed the gear in reverse and reversed out of the driveway and entered the road.

She then asked the question she really wanted the answer to ever since she heard that Gumball was in the hospital, as she drove down the road. "What happened?" she desperately asked her children.

Lexy, who had closed her eyes to get over her dizzy spell, opened her eyes and was immediately met with her mother's eyes through the rear view mirror. She was then overwhelmed by shame and fear, which caused her to look down, avoiding her mother's gase, she couldn't find the right words to say to her mother. She was ashamed of what she did, for what felt like a moment, she turned into her mother, a beast that knows nothing except destruction, and she was afraid of tell her mother that the beast went after Gumball.

"Mom, I'm sorry, it was a mistake, I didn't mean to do it." she said as tears went down her cheeks, as the pain from her heart was too much as she thought about what she did to Gumball, and the headache wasn't helping. Looking up again, she saw that Nicole was gazing directly at her, causing her to slightly whimper and look down again, as her mother's gaze was more intense than before.

"What happened." Nicole repeated herself, but more firmly this time. She knew that Lexy was smart, not as smart as Anais, but not crazy and unstable like Gumball, so she knew that even though Lexy may be involved, she couldn't be the direct cause of what happened to Gumball, and as long as Lexy doesn't tell her, she won't know what happened.

After piecing together the events of what transpired, she took a moment to swallow her fears, and recalled what went down. "I-it was gym class, and today we were having MMA sparring, and when it was my turn to get into the sparring ring, Gumball came into the gym, he then excused himself for being late, and then he asked to spar with me, the couch allowed it, and so we started sparring, and he started to taunt me, trying to get me mad and let out all of anger on him. That's what he said. I was able to hold back my anger, but he kept taunting me until I lost it and I couldn't control myself, and-and I couldn't stop m-myself from... I'm sorry, I couldn't stop myself, I-I beat him until h-he was i-i-in the verge of d-dea-, until he w-was a-almost d-d-dead. I'm really sorry, I couldn't stop myse-" Lexy explained what happened, but was cut off from her rambling by Anais who hugged her, not being able to stand the scene of her sister crying.

"I'm sorry." she repeated, tears falling down her face as she embraced the comfort that she being given. "I didn't mean it."

Nicole just drove down the road, trying to process everything she was just told. She now also felt guilt for what also happened. Okay, there's no way she knew that he would do this, but if she had just payed more attention and asked Gumball what he meant by a statement he had made, but then it didn't make any sense, but now it's clear what he was planning. A few weeks ago, she had set down with Gumball, much to his annoyance.

She had asked him if he had anyway he had planned to take care of Lexy, because she, with the rest of the family were fad up with the tense atmosphere that is almost always generated when they get together, he told her that he had a plan to take care of the issue that involved lots and lots of dates, even though she knew what Gumball meant by date, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about the forbidden "I" word.

Yes, Iphone. (sorry, can't help myself from making that joke.) but seriously, it just stuck into her mind, she had heard stories about siblings who break the law and do the forbidden with each other, but even though she told herself not to worry since they see each other naked once in a while and that doesn't seem to be doing anything, she told herself that she had to keep an eye on them for now on just incase. And she also asked him what he was planning to do if his plan fails, and he said, "Well, we are your children, and we are the same as you, so I'm just going to do the same thing that calms you down when we get you mad at us."

Then, that really confused her, because when she gets mad at them, she punishes them, and then as time goes by she starts to calm down. Since she was confused, she asked him what he meant, and he said that she would see if his plan fails, and until then she doesn't need to know anything. Then he left without another word.

Then it was a riddle, but now it's makes sense, most of the time when she gets mad at them, her anger is mostly calmed down at the process of punishment, namely when she spanks them, and that was Gumball was hinting at. Most, if not all people just take care of their anger through physical activities, like boxing, and other activities that quickly drain energy, and by draining that energy while thinking whatever is making you mad, you will feel relief about the subject, and Gumball knew and was counting on this.

Nicole's eyes widened at the revelation, she really doesn't give Gumball enough credit for the the crazy, but brilliant ideas he normally has, well she probably doesn't because they are crazy, over the top, and most of them are suicidal, so any sane person would also miss their genius in all of that craziness.

Seeing a parking space open ahead, Nicole drove to it, and was lucky faster then the other person, coming from the other side of the road, who seemed like they wanted the exact same spot. Parking on the space, Nicole took off her seatbelt and twisted her body so that she was facing her daughter, who was still looking down in fear at what her mother would do to her.

Extending her arm out, Lexy's body tensed up, Nicole then placed a hand on her shoulder, causing Lexy to jump up a bit at the content. Lexy then mentally prepared herself, and braced for what was sure to come, but it didn't come, at least not the way she was expecting, instead of the cold, harsh yell, it was a gentle, loving, but hurt call.

"Lexy." Nicole called out, wanting Lexy to look at her. After gathering her courage, Lexy accepted her fate by looking up, and like the tone of her voice, Nicole displayed a loving, hurt and caring emotion. "Look, Lexy, I know you didn't mean it, and your anger just took control of your body, and you couldn't fight it, it happens to me. It doesn't matter what happened, the only thing that matters is that Gumball needs us now. And with what you just told me, it seems to me like Gumball had planned everything out. And if that is right, that means that he's already counted for everything that happened, and will survive." Nicole explained, trying to assure her baby girl that everything would be alright in time.

"Believe us when we say that if we are taking about Gumball, this would be in the sane box, and his plans are normally more crazy than this, so don't worry, he's stronger then you think. He's already survived being hit by trucks, so I'm sure he's going to bounce back from this quite easily so don't worry about him, he's to stubborn to give up on life like that." said Darwin as he brushed her back.

"Yeah, I'm more interested to know if someone was able to film the fight, and if so how many slices of pizza do I need when watching it." Richard joked, causing the family to chuckle. Now that she thinks about it, this is way the family isn't going crazy about Gumball's health, and were casual about it, they have faith in his stubbornness. If everyone really believes that Gumball's fine, then she should do the same. Though, since she had been there Gumball had broken a few bones and sometimes he had survived falls that should be impossible, but then, he would be able to stand up, or at least stay conscious, but this time she was sure that she caused some internal damage, and he did pass out.

"Okay, if you believe that he is going to be okay then I will try to have a little faith." Lexy replied with a big smile that mostly assured everyone that she was going to alright. Nicole had hoped that Lexy had Gumball's pure stubbornness, sure most of the time it's a drag, but sometimes it's what helps him to never lose hope, or is that his arrogance, to tell the truth, it gets hard to distinguish between the two sometimes, but in a world like the one we live in, it might not be such a bad thing to have those types of tropes.

With a big smile on her face Nicole placed a hand onto Lexy's face whipped off the tears from her cheeks. "Okay, with that out of the way we should get going, I doubt we should keep Gumball waiting." she said with a chuckle before she let go of Lexy's face and turned around, got her seatbelt on then drove out of the parking space, and went down the road. As she had faith that Gumball was safe she couldn't help but worry about her boy, he is still her baby boy after all and that's not going to change, so worrying was a normal thing, but even though that is true.

But though, her other hopes were shattered, she had hoped that the family could go back to its normal way, but with Gumball about to disappear, those dreams are going to have to stay dreams, and that's not counting the what strain the reveal will be after she tells them that she's the reason for the disappearance. Man! Everything was causing her stress. She just needs to focus on one thing a time, otherwise everything will drive her insane.

It didn't long before they reached the hospital, reaching it Nicole didn't care about parking, she just illegally parked near the door of the hospital, and no one in the car protested as they took off their seatbelts and rushed out of the car, not at all paying attention to it security guard that told them that they couldn't park on the spot they chose. And then an older security guard stopped that other one, as he still had nightmares from what he had seen from Gumball, about a month ago.

Rushing into the hospital, they ran through everyone, not caring what kind of damage they caused, or the amount of people they pushed over, they were here for only one thing, so fuck everything else. Reaching their first destination, they stopped in front of one of the receptionist. Said receptionist was immediately filled with fear at the sight of the o' so famous Watterson family.

Gathering her courage, knowing too well that they were coming to the hospital, after seeing the boy being dragged in with a stretcher, and also knew that one of them would have have to tend to the family that is the most feared in the city, if not the whole state. Hack, if the family was a gang, or had ties to a gang, no one would be surprised, maybe scared, but not surprised.

The receptionist opened her mouth to say something before the family could. "He's on the third floor, to your left when you step out of the elevator. He's in room 37, and after the surgery he will be transferred to room 43." the receptionist said what they all have been practicing since Gumball was transmitted in the hospital, not wanting a repeat of last time.

The family found it highly convenient that they had that kind of information in their heads, but it was also highly helpful to their quest, but it did put Nicole on high alert, just incase they were people who were here to hurt him, or even worse, they were here to take his chastity and farther drive him into the dark side of the world, mixed with drugs, alcohol and sex. There was no way that she was going to let any whore corrupt her son... more, there was no way she was going to let a whore corrupt her son more then he is.

"Thanks." Richard said then the crew went straight for the elevators. Reaching the elevators, they noticed that they were both currently busy transporting people.

"Should we take the stairs?" asked Lexy, wanting to get next to her brother as fast as possible, and with both of the elevators (Sorry if I'm wrong about the number of elevators in US hospitals, but I my country, they're normally two, so I'm gonna work from what I know.) were currently busy, the next best thing was the stairs, but a problem with that is that they take to much time to get the your desired destination, so the question floating around is that should they wait for a elevator.

"Yeah, that would be a good idea." Nicole answered in a praising way. Gumball's only in the 3rd floor, so they will only have to climb 6 pairs of stairs, which is not much if you think about it.

"Huh, stairs! Can't we just wait for the elevator, I mean you heard the lady, Gumball is in the ICU and if we get there now, we won't help in any way." Richard said, protesting on the idea of going up the stairs because he was too lazy, and he knew even though his wife was keeping it together, once she actually sees the state Gumball is in, she will lose her composure, so stalling her as much as possible, or at least until the surgery is done.

They even had a plan were if by some chance they were informed that a family member is going into the hospital for something serious before they actually gets taken in, the rest of the family would try to stall Nicole as much as possible, or if there's surgery taking place, or medical tests are being run, they will try to ease Nicole to the result, well if they are, or have the potential to be bad.

He hasn't tried to slow her down for so long because he didn't see the need to since the kids also haven't tried to stop her so he figured that this was something that already passed hours ago, but then why weren't they notified as the parents of the child, they would be unless it was something that happened very recently, partially meaning that Gumball might not have started the surgery he needed, also meaning that Gumball's disfigured features are probably on display. So he was being a good husband and keeping his wife from pain.

But wait a minute, shouldn't the parents be informed as soon as something comes up with the child, so that brought another question to the light, why weren't they informed as soon as the incident occurred? It was then that Richard felt a short vibration from his butt. Quickly recognising the vibration as a notification vibration, he remembered that he had his phone on silence because he didn't want to be interrupted by it, and he also had Nicole's phone because he was a husband, so that explains itself, and her phone was also on silent for the same reasons as his.

"Richard! Stop playing around! Our son is up there, and we can't just wait down here while he is suffering!" Nicole yelled, striking fear into Richard with the power of her voice. "So are you going to go up those stairs or wait for the elevator?!" she then asked with a fear striking, calm tone that instantly told him that she wasn't playing around, and promised pain if the wrong choice was taken. Not wanting any pain to be sent to him, Richard gulped a hard one before he rushed up the stairs, not caring about leaving his family behind, only caring about not being punished by Nicole.

Normally he wouldn't care about being punished by Nicole, not that he was a masochist or something, but it made for some interesting sex time, but the problem with this moment, is that her tone promised pain without pleasure, and he wasn't down with that.

Seeing their father race up the stairs, the children didn't waste any time in their positions that they were standing in, they also followed their father, but not running up the stairs like him, but not going a normal walking pace, because even though Nicole was talking with Richard, what she said scared them all, and non of them wanted to be punished, although they counted themselves lucky that Nicole stopped spanking them.

Nicole was the last one to go up, following her children. She liked it when she was obeyed without trouble. If only it'll be like that for the rest of her life, she would be very happy, but at the moment she had a boss who she had to follow every order from. Nicole let out a mental sigh at that thought. If only she could quickly pay off all, or at least most of her debts, so she could start a small business like a restaurant or bakery, or something to that ally, then she would be very happy with herself for being her own boss. But even if she could pay off most of her debts, it would take her a very long, so right now she was just working for her kids, hoping that what she could provide was more then enough, and also praying that her children will have a better life then hers when they grow up.

Reaching their floor, she stepped out of the stair case to see Richard panting as he was seated on a chair, to the left of him was Anais, who was busy rubbing his back as Darwin, who was on his right, was busy petting his back, Lexy was standing in front of Richard, as she offered him a bottle of water. Richard took the bottle and instantly downed the contents inside, before fully crashing the bottle itself.

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, Nicole turned her head left to see a tiger girl that was around Lexy's age, and Nicole didn't recognize her. The girl had yellow and black striped mid-back long hair that was comb back and held by a hair bend, and had yellow eyes, and she was wearing a short sleeve, orange t-shirt with white shorts and orange flip flops. The girl was also holding a piece of paper. "Are you Mrs Watterson?" the girl asked, even though she knew the answer.

"Yes, have we met?" asked Nicole, thinking that the girl looked familiar, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

"No, but I know Gumball, and he asked me to give you this." the girl replied with a smile on her face as she extended her hand, that had the piece of paper, towards Nicole. Seeing the gesture, Nicole also extended her hand towards the paper and took it as the nameless girl released her grip on it.

"Okay, thank you..." Nicole trailed off as she asked the mysterious girl for her name.

"Oh, just call me Cass." the girl now known as Cass answered. She then went to the stair case, and Nicole lost trace of her as the stair case door closed behind her.

Nicole stood in place for a few moments looking at where the mysterious girl disappeared, as she tried to piece together a mental puzzle of where she might have seen the small girl. The name didn't even ring a bell, she had never heard the name before, but she was sure that she had seen Cass before, or at least a look alike. Nicole then chose to brush it off as seeing look alikes was a common thing. Maybe Lexy or Darwin know who she is, and she shouldn't trouble her brain with this impossible puzzle. Looking back, she saw that Lexy was closing the gap between them as she was coming closer.

Stopping in front of her mother, Lexy asked her mother. "Mom, who's that girl you were talking to?" Lexy asked in a on edge way. She was currently on edge because Gumball was still in surgery and even knowing what Gumball could withstand, and have been in this situation before a lot of times, she couldn't help but doubt Gumball's recovery, she just couldn't help it, and to think that she could be the cause of him needing surgery.

"I'm not sure, but she said that she knows Gumball, haven't you ever seen her before?" asked Nicole. The mystery thickens.

Lexy shook her head. "No, this is the first time." said Lexy, she really didn't remember seeing the girl that her mother was talking to, and she's sure that she would have remembered seeing such a girl. "What did she give you?" she asked, hoping that the letter on her mother's hands would uncover this mystery.

Looking at the letter, Nicole opened it.

_Dear mom_

_So, mom, please forgive Lexy for what she did, I know that you might be angry at her, but I pushed her over the edge, because just like I said, we are your children, meaning that we are the same as you, and when we get too angry we just blow, I mean look at Anais, she gets mad and immediately there's hell to pay, Lexy is the same, but her fuse is longer than yours or Anais's, I'm also the same except I take care of anything that gets under me before I blow, or so I have been told, so since I knew that we are the same, I also knew that just seating around and wait for Lexy's heart to heal overtime and forgive me wasn't a possibility, so I also figured that to start the healing process, I first needed to give her a way to remove most, if not all of the anger she had towards me, and I believe we all know how that went. So I know what you might be thinking, and no, I'm not crazy, I just think outside of the box. Okay seeing that I am in pain because of this plan, I might be a little crazy, but seeing who we were envisioned from, my plan isn't that crazy. I mean the Bible says that we are made from God's image, so God once killed first born sons, then he said "Thou shall not kill" and then he sent his only son to be killed, I'm not trying to point fingers here, but who seems to be the more sane one of us? Okay it's him since he had better reasons why he did those things, but mine are also good enough. So please don't punish Lexy for what she did, she was in a rage and she couldn't control herself. Also, this is a threat, we are your children after all, meaning as much as you can threaten us with punishments, we can also threaten you, so now I'm not asking, but telling you to not punish Lexy, or else I'll destroy your world, and you know I could do that even before Phantom, so now that I have them on my back, I'm sure you can imagine just how more dangerous I've become. __**You have been warned!**_

_Love: Gumball Z.C. Watterson_

For Lexy, this was a bitter sweet letter, on one hand she was extremely happy to see just how much her brother loved her even though all she had done to him, she really felt bad, much worse than ever for what they put him through, he was mentally, physically and emotionally racked thanks to them. He has more than enough reason to give up on trying to get on her good side and just hate all of them, but he doesn't. As much as he hates most of the family, he is somehow trying to get himself to forgive them. Even with the huge scar on his heart and mind, he is trying to patch things up. But why? Was what was in Lexy's mind as she hid her face while tears fell down her face. If only she had found out earlier that he was still in a mental battle, she could have helped him, but the only thing she knew was that all his issues were taken care of in the psyche hospital and only found out recently that he still had this issue. But, you know what? There's still time, she can help him when he wakes up. But then she had another emotional stomach punch. All this time she could have forgiven or at least try to give him a chance and she could have known earlier than helped him, but now it personally felt like she wanted to help him because she felt bad for him instead of helping because he is her brother. All of those thoughts ate out on her as they also caused more tears to wall up on her eyes and fall down her cheeks as she turned around and tried to walk away without alerting her mother.

For Nicole, the letter was a reminder of the crazy, reckless, dangerous, highly unpredictable, fearless, fear striking personality of her son that also planned there steps ahead and also had unmeasurable level of love. She was sure that the prison might've changed him or made him worse, and it seems like the letter is more accurate. But she then noticed his initials, then she was filled with fear more over. She knew all too well what the Z in his initials meant. It was Zach. How could something that the whole family tried to get rid of, and succeeded in doing so, found its way back. But then she should have prepared for this moment, the way they got rid of Zach was unethical and unpresented at most, they should have known that he would still be in Gumball's head, and moreover how would they even get rid of someone who God can't forget. Zachary, To be remembered by God.

* * *

**To be continued.**


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